Keanu Modern (05-13)

Perhaps the technical definition of Modernism — whichever one you’d like to choose — isn’t exactly the one I’m after here. But I like the words in this literary definition, which talk about fragmentation, mirroring the fragmented state of the world.

So what would that say of Keanu Reeves in this period, one that begins with Constantine and ends (more or less) with Man of Tai Chi?

There’s a slower feel to this group of films. It’s the transition to old(er) Keanu, the first real hints of which we see in Constantine where the character’s face — Keanu’s — is finally stripped of its boyishness. Sure, there’s nary a wrinkle and — lest we forget — it is a character — but there’s finally some welcome signs of age coming to the surface.

Perhaps just one of many instances of eye acting from Keanu. I don’t know. But this is the final stretch, 2005 to 2013, before we get to the ideal Keanu, the one whose age serves him better on screen than his pin-up boy good looks ever did. Gathering the fragments into something more substantial, better than the sum of its shards.

September 2023